Research Project - Piyatat Pananurak

Cotton Production in Asia: Productivity, Efficiency, and Impact Assessment

Background:

From 2000 to 2004, Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations (FAO) was supporting the Farmer Field School (FFS) project on the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) training farmers under “FAO-EU IPM Programme for Cotton in Asia”. The program has 6 member countries, which are China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Vietnam – the first three are the world’s top four cotton production countries. Because the member countries significant use chemical to control pests, hence, the major purpose of the programme is detoxifying, existing pest control strategies, replacing them with the more sustainable, environmentally friendly cotton production in Asia. In addition, the programme also develops, implements, and evaluates sustainable farmer education program. The training is based season-long learning for 25-30 farmers during crop season. Farmers meet 14-20 times for 4-5 hours per session, and each session consists of field observation, ecosystem analysis, presentation, discussion, and decision-making. Moreover, the pilot projects financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Pakistan, India, and China, have shown that farmers reduced their use of insecticides and increased yields at the same time.

Productivity and efficiency are examined to be an important determinant of productivity growth and international competitiveness in any economy. It is also considered to be an important factor, which contributes to stability of production.

In this study, hence, an attempt has been to estimate the productivity and efficiency of cotton production, and impact assessments of “FAO-EU IPM Programme for Cotton in Asia” .

Objective:

The objective of the proposed study is to explain difference in productivity and profitability among the 5 countries, and to assess the impact of IPM program on productivity, profitability, and other performance parameters such as health improvement. Furthermore, the objective will be stretched to assess the efficiency of cotton production across country, and test whether or not farmer training improve efficiency production.